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While waiting for the kettle to boil this morning, I was idling and reading the label on the bottle of milk and was struck by the declaration: "Permeate free, made in WA". Here's a shot of the label for proper context:

The label in question

It's clear that they want to state that the milk is produced in this state, but it sounds odd to me to say that milk is made — I've always associated that with products that require at least a nominal amount of manufacturing/processing (e.g. butter, cream, yoghurt).

For the raw produce though, I can't really recall anything using made but more specific terms like grown, harvested, farmed, raised, etc.

So in this context, does anyone has a suggestion what might be a more descriptive, or more appropriate word? The best I can come up with is milked but that sounds awfully clumsy.

Alternatively, if people have milk bottles from their side of the world that say something similar, then it could just be me that thinks it's a bit clunky.

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Well, you just used produced yourself. Without even noticing. That's how natural a word choice it is. So go with that one. – RegDwighт♦ Dec 23 '12 at 4:37
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Well there are ten times as many instances of "butter made in ireland" as there are of "butter produced in ireland". I can see OP's point, but it doesn't seem to bother a lot of people. – FumbleFingers Dec 23 '12 at 5:13
Yes but @FumbleFingers the OP is asking about milk and is quite clear that other products -- butter is an example -- could be "made." – JAM Dec 23 '12 at 5:18
@JAM: You're quite right. I only found half-a-dozen relevant instances of milk made in ireland - but obviously they must make/produce/milk the stuff there, to make/produce all the Irish butter and cheese. – FumbleFingers Dec 23 '12 at 5:30
More pondering on my side, I think the reason made doesn't sound quite right to me is that I've only tended to use it in a direct sense, as in: I'd say cows make milk, but those in the dairy milking the cows don't. Eh. It's probably just me. – tanantish Dec 25 '12 at 2:28

3 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

Dictionary.com says that milk is "liquid produced by mammals". Perhaps produced would be better. Cows "make" milk and they "produce" milk, and both sound normal and natural and idiomatic to me (American-speaker): either word should work. The problem for me with this advert is the meaning of "Permeate Free". What a strange name for milk!

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Per wikipedia, “Milk permeate is a by-product of the dairy production process, formed after ultrafiltration ... [for cheesemaking]. Permeate has a watery consistency, and is green in colour due to the presence of B vitamins. It consists of lactose, water, vitamins and minerals. Permeate may be added to fresh milk as part of a process called standardisation, to keep consistent levels of fat and protein in the product” – jwpat7 Dec 23 '12 at 5:03
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The permeate controversy is so far mainly limited to Australia, hence its mention on Western Australian milk – Mark Beadles Dec 23 '12 at 5:16
@MarkBeadles I think you have had the Eureka moment here. Is that an Australian flag on the milk bottle label, lower left corner? If so, I think that must be the answer, just as you said. In the U.S., we don't (yet) have a permeate controversy. "With acidopholus" or "without rennet" or raw versus pasteurized are what I am accustomed to seeing ;o) – Feral Oink Dec 23 '12 at 5:25
Indeed, it is a West Australian bottle of milk (the brand being Woolworths Select if you were curious - the weird W-like-but-resembles-more-of-a-green-pumpkin is their icon) – tanantish Dec 23 '12 at 6:15
@jwpat7: Thank you for the explanation! – Bill Franke Dec 23 '12 at 8:19
up vote 4 down vote

I've seen labels like "Product of", "Produce of" being used on food labels and I think that it may be more apt in this case.

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up vote 1 down vote

I think that the alternatives to made, produced, and the OP's milked in the context of milk production are:

  • Drawn
  • Collected
  • Extracted

All three terms appear to be used. "Drawn in WA" sounds fine to mine ears. "Draughted in [WA]" might also work; but it's technically a term from the beer industry with slightly different connotations.

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All those sound reeeeally gross to me. – Joseph Weissman Feb 2 at 16:38

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